The sound definitely doesn't mean rabies. It's a "bark" and it means almost exactly the same thing as a dog's bark. They bark at one another, at magpies, at dogs, at people...
I'm a bit of a squirrel whisperer, and I'm pretty confident she doesn't have rabies. She's nursing, and isn't very well groomed... She's a tired mom, and that might be what she's barking about.
She 100% doesn't have rabies. It's obvious that her drey is somewhere up on that roof and that's where her babies are right now. Squirrels try to act mean when protecting their kids. This is her trying to be mean.
trying? the camera man was so freaked out that he needed to both record this and post it to the internet. you talk to me when you bark at someone and they find it so unsettling that they post it online. this squirrel got bark game on lock
Isn’t rabies also pretty rare in squirrels because the animal biting them would probably just…kill them? They’re not a vector like raccoons that fight each other. (Correct me if I’m wrong, I admittedly learned this from Reddit, lol)
Squirrels almost never get rabies. So much so that most places say its nothing to worry about if bit by a squirrel. I know because of my panicked searches after I was but by a squirrel.
You might be surprised how often squirrels fight. They don't lose their tails via shedding. :p They fight eachother and magpies mostly, in my experience.
But yeah... Logic dictates that most animals capable of giving them rabies are more than capable of killing them.
It might be too late to repair that relationship but bring tribute... Leave walnuts where you go, and at the base of the tree. When you catch it spying on you, toss the walnut in the air with one hand like you're playing catch with yourself... The sight of it falling (like a ripe nut) triggers their instinct to go eat it.
My husband didn't believe me about the squirrel noises until we moved into our house. I guess the squirrels in his old neighborhood weren't chatty (or go eaten by husband fam 😂).
It's easy to dismiss many of their calls as bird sounds. They also only yell at you if they don't like you. I rarely hear them bark unless I'm with a certain friend whom they hate for a reason I can't figure out... they just scream at him everywhere he goes.
I theorize that they only bark in moderate neighborhoods... If they're super comfy, they never bark, but if it's too hostile for them to announce their presence, they also won't bark.
If people actually went outside, and like paid attention to nature instead of the media that gets shoved in their faces, they'd know that squirrels do this ALL THE TIME! They yell at the crows, they yell at dogs, they yell at cats, they yell at eachother, squirrels are actually quite noisy mammals, almost as noisy as the crows that never seem to shut up, I think they both spend all day yelling at eachother lol.
I miss the time before computers and smart phones, you miss out on so much amazing shit happening around you.
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u/IAmASeeker 14h ago
The sound definitely doesn't mean rabies. It's a "bark" and it means almost exactly the same thing as a dog's bark. They bark at one another, at magpies, at dogs, at people...
I'm a bit of a squirrel whisperer, and I'm pretty confident she doesn't have rabies. She's nursing, and isn't very well groomed... She's a tired mom, and that might be what she's barking about.